Email: Unity and the unchurched [KF]

I don't have a lot of experience with Unity services or beliefs yet. I am aware that every other denomination does not consider Unity persons to be "real" Christians (esp. since they not so much allow visitation by but condone membership of pagans, atheists, Muslims, Hindus, and so on). I've also found some wacky beliefs and personal hangups in almost every Unity person I've met. I understand this needn't apply to you though.

The rest of Christianity in fact teaches that Christ was fully human and fully divine; he could have chosen to sin ("miss the mark") at any time but didn't. (Sweating blood in Gesthemene is supposed to suggest how hard he struggled with the temptation to quit and save his skin.)

I do believe that Unity reaches people that the mainstream church does not or cannot. The church is generally unaware of its sins of omission or commission and is in fact responsible for offending, chasing away, or failing to adequately reach out to the majority of unchurched persons. (The academic world has worked to branch out into many effective teaching styles beyond the simple lecture format, but I can count on one hand the number of evangelical churches in Houston that are breaking new ground in preaching and teaching formats that creatively address the questions and needs of the unchurched.) I am less concerned with socializing with people who belong to the same denomination or believe the same things; [I am] more concerned with making friends who share a mutual integrity and character which include tolerance and the ability to collaborate over commonalities more than differentiate over dogma. In a word, any Christian who believes, without knowing me, that he speaks to God more righteously and personally than I do, and therefore has the right to speak for God and to pronounce that I am going to hell, probably isn't my kind of Christian -- or the Lord's (but let's not get into a "he said, she said" thing).

The computer industry (esp. Silicon Valley) has been in a severe decline or depression since the dot-com crash four years ago because its fast-paced competitive edge is difficult to maintain. (I believe it cannibalizes itself as well as other industries.) I am seeing salaries lower than those of 20 years ago as a rule. This is what people don't get when I say things are slow. Almost everyone I know has been laid off or left the industry due to lack of work. Many reach our age and elect to do something less tech-centric and more "humane" or people-centric. I consider all options.